3 slain in city since Jan. 1 2 fatally shot on New Year's

January 02, 1991|By Norris P. West and Richard Irwin | Norris P. West and Richard Irwin,Evening Sun Staff William B. Talbott and Mark Bomster contributed to this story.

Baltimore registered its third homicide of 1991 today with the discovery of the body of a 52-year-old northwest Baltimore woman about 10 a.m. She apparently had been beaten to death with a shovel.

The killing follows two fatal shootings on New Year's Day, one of them just minutes before midnight last night.

Last year, the city recorded 305 murders, the most since 1972. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke pledged this week to seek ways to cut the number of homicides.

In the most recent homicide, the woman, whose name was not been released pending notification of her family, was found on the kitchen floor of her home in the 4000 block of Garrison Blvd. Her body was discovered by a co-worker who came to the house after the woman failed to appear at work today and did not answer the telephone.

Investigators said the co-worker found the front door ajar, entered and called police. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. The shovel was found near the body.

Police had no suspect or motive at this time.

Last night's shooting death, said Detective Oscar Requer, occurred shortly before midnight when Angelo Evans, 30, of the 1700 block of E. 33rd St., was shot on the 2700 block of Kennedy Ave. near Abbotston Street in northeast Baltimore.

Requer said Northeastern District police responding to a report of a shooting found Evans lying face down on the pavement a few feet from a tavern.

An unidentified man, believed to be the gunman, was seen fleeing immediately after the gunshot was heard, the detective said.

Requer said Evans had been shot once in the upper chest and was pronounced dead at the scene by the crew of a city Fire Department ambulance.

Requer said a neighbor notified Evans' family that he had been shot. The victim was identified by his sister before his body was taken to the state medical examiner's office, where an autopsy was to be performed.

The detective said he had no motive for the killing and no witnesses.

"We get a lot of these types of homicides," Requer said.

The year's first homicide occurred inside a house in the 2000 block of Rayner Ave. in West Baltimore.

Daisy R. Hill, 60, was shot to death shortly after 11 a.m. in the bedroom of the first-floor apartment she shared with Paul Sherman Williams, police said.

Homicide detectives said Williams, 58, was charged with first-degree murder and weapons violations. He was being held at the Western District lockup pending a bail review hearing today in District Court.

Lt. James Carnes and Detective Frank Barlow said Hill and Williams were drinking with five other people when Williams began firing a .22-caliber rifle at the bedroom ceiling, sparking an argument between him and Hill. Williams then fatally shot Hill once in the head, police said.

"This was a domestic, and there's not much we can do about domestic-related murders," said Carnes, who added that seven people -- three of them visitors -- were in the apartment when the shooting occurred.

The couple's landlord, Mary Edith McFadden, said Williams and Hill were good tenants and a happy couple.

They had lived in the first-floor apartment since 1981. McFadden said the couple, who told people they had a common-law marriage, appeared to be lovebirds as they walked together through the neighborhood on New Year's Eve.

"Yesterday, it was lovely," McFadden said as she stood outside the two-story brick rowhouse. "I collected their rent yesterday. We were talking, all were laughing -- having fun. Everybody said, 'Happy New Year.' "

McFadden was troubled by the fact that a shooting happened in a building she owned. She also wondered what she would do with the apartment. She said an elderly man and a woman lived there with Williams and Hill, but she doubted whether they would be able to afford the $170-a-month rent.

She said she never had that worry with Williams and Hill.

"They were good tenants," McFadden said. "The times they would get their money, they'd say, 'Come and get it.' "